The numbers of working online and why cramming does not work

Would you rather have 1000 auditions completed for $100 jobs over the course of a year, or 100 auditions for $1000 jobs during the same time period? If you did in fact book everything you auditioned for, you would make the same amount of money, right? Wrong. In a day and age of “time is money”, the act of auditioning costs time, electricity, effort etc.

Auditioning is not “practice”. You cannot cram for a voice over career, as if it were a final exam, by practicing over and over again. Why? Cramming creates the possibility of brand damage i.e. “people” get too familiar with other “people” for the wrong reasons. You may start to get better behind the mic, while your online brand is associated with “just practicing”. Remember, “people” are posting jobs for “people”. Take numbers a bit further. Under older business models of unlimited auditioning:

1000 auditions in a year x 200-300 people each time.

A supply of 200,000 – 300,000 auditions a year.

Under the old business model prior to 2007, less than 10% of auditions were opened.

Only 20,000 – 30,000 of those auditions actually had a chance, while the sheer amount made “people” believe by “supply” alone, something should cost less.

In such a market, the value of the audition is driven down because it becomes a game of weeding through those who practice to find the real deal, when people want “the read deal” only; a very real issue. Fast forward to 2011, under SmartCast on Voice123:

An average of 10.2 auditions per job.

A software that allows voice talent to teach the system what jobs should be sent to them.

More than 75% of auditions are opened.

Since 2007, job postings on Voice123 have increased over 1600%.

Voice talent given the choice to charge what they feel they are worth, not preset by the website, removes the following concerns:

“I have to be first or I have no chance!”

“I have to bid lower than others!”

Is it all perfect? No. It is understood that the only constant in life is “change”. Voice123 is in the beginning stages of working on a new version, and we would like to know your feedback. We will always keep it transparent so Voice123 talent can feel confident in their decisions.

Let us know what you think!

“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” — Maya Angelou

This blog post is great. I, for one, really like the way Voice123 filters/limits auditions. I don’t feel guilty about passing on an audition for a $50 job, because I am teaching SmartCast that I want to be considered for better paying work that is worth my efforts. Plus I feel like I am helping other talent in the industry; by not auditioning for that job, I am encouraging seekers to pay a better and fair rate for VO services. Also, I feel like I have the time to create a quality custom audition because I don’t have to scramble to be the first or second person to submit in order to be considered.

I’d also like to say that I love how easy Voice123 makes it for seekers to contact me directly– I hope you keep that in any future system updates. I’ve actually booked more work by direct contacts who saw me on Voice123 than through projects created in the system. That’s my two cents! 🙂